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Tom Reed,who previously covered the Blue Jackets for The Dispatch, is back after a five-year absence while working for the newspaper in that city up north: Cleveland. Follow him on Twitter at @treed1919

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Game 77: Late Collapse Yields Loss

Posted Apr 4, 2014
by Aaron Portzline

There were two chaotic scenes in the final 40 seconds of last night’s game between the Blue Jackets and Chicago Blackhawks, and the Jackets ended up on the wrong end of both of them. The first set up the second, and the second landed like a gut-punch.

With 3.9 seconds remaining, Chicago’s Ben Smith scored through a pile of humanity in front of Blue Jackets goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, the winning goal in a 4-3 Chicago victory before 18,695 in Nationwide Arena.

The building erupted when Smith scored, because the building was at least half filled (60 percent? 70 percent?) by Blackhawks fans. The Blue Jackets are 1-11-1 the last 13 times Nationwide has been sold out, including 0-6 this season. They're 1-4-2 in their last seven home games overall.

But this one ...

“Sadly, we’ve had a few of these (kind of losses),” Blue Jackets center Mark Letestu said. “We’ll bounce back. This is going to sting for a couple hours, but we have to get ready for the (New York) Islanders (on Sunday). There’s a big picture at stake here, and this one loss isn’t going to derail it.”

After scoring three “own” goals in a 3-2 loss to Colorado on Tuesday, Blue Jackets fans might have believed they’d seen every way possible to lose a game.

Nope.

With 38 seconds remaining, and the score tied 3-3, Blue Jackets defenseman James Wisniewski launched himself toward the Jackets bench to avoid a too-many-men on the ice call. At some point during Wiz's launch sequence, he may have brushed into teammate Jack Johnson, who was coming onto the ice in Wisniewski's sted.

Johnson’s attempt to chuck the puck off the wall and clear the zone, but the puck glance off a glove on the Blue Jackets’ bench, and officials blew the play dead. The puck was dropped in the Jackets’ zone for the ensuing faceoff.

Blue Jackets center Ryan Johansen lost the faceoff to Smith, thus beginning a sequence that led to Smith’s goal. Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith fired the initial shot on Bobrovsky, and Smith won a swordfight among sticks to poke the puck home.

“It feels like a gut-punch right now,” Blue Jackets defenseman Dalton Prout said. “A loss is a loss. We have to move on. We could have lost 6-0, or lost like this. Either way, we don’t get the two points.”

The Blue Jackets remained in eighth place in the Eastern Conference, two points behind Philadelphia for third place in the Metropolitan Division, but only one point ahead of Toronto and three ahead of New Jersey for the final wild-card playoff spot.

Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards said repeatedly after the game that he was feeling “lots of emotions.” One of them seemed to be regret.

“Is there an opportunity for me to call timeout?” Richards wondered. “That’s what I’m going through right now.”

The Blue Jackets did not have issue with the officials’ decision to put the faceoff in the Jackets’ end, nor did they complain about Smith’s goal being allowed. Chicago’s Peter Regin was wholly in the crease next to Bobrovsky, even poking the stick as it crossed the line.

“I didn’t look at it probably really objectively,” Richards said. “But based on what I saw I’d say, ‘naw, it turned into a scramble at the front of the net.”

Derek MacKenzie, Artem Anisimov and Johansen scored goals for the Blue Jackets, while Bobrovsky finished with 34 saves. He saw 30 shots in the final two periods.

In addition to Smith, Jeremy Morin, Patrick Sharp and Marian Hossa scored for the Blackhawks, while goaltender Antti Raanta had 24 saves.

The Blackhawks have won two straight after a three-game winning streak.

"It was a huge game for us," Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said." Very timely on the goal. We had a lot of people at the net tonight and we got rewarded in that case. I really like the way we got to the net, hung around and got rewarded.

"We said after the first period, 'Hey, boys, it’s a playoff pace, we better pick it up here.' And I thought we were better in the last 40 minutes."

Meanwhile, in the other dressing room ...

“We’re going to put this one behind us,” Bobrovsky said. “Five more games? We have to focus on those games now.”

Side dishes:

-- MacKenzie’s goal was his ninth of the season, tying his previous career high (2010-11).

-- Dubinsky’s assist on Johansen’s goal was his 31st of the season, a new career high. He had 30 assists for the New York Rangers in 2010-11.

-- Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith had assists on Chicago’s final three goals and has 54 this season, one fewer than his career high of 54 in 2009-10. He won the Norris Trophy that season.

-- AHL Springfield clinched a playoff berth with a wild 8-7 OT win at St. John’s. Jack Skille scored four goals, including the equalizer with 17 seconds remaining in regulation. He also had an assist. Sean Collins scored the winner.

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